INTERACTIVE SEARCH ENGINE

A method and apparatus for providing a highly interactive user interface to a search engine using user input prediction is disclosed. As the user enters a portion of a query in a query field, the portion of the query is sent over a network to a query predictor. The query predictor determines a set of one or more predicted queries that correspond to the portion of the query. A particular predicted query is selected from the set of predicted queries based on selection criteria. The particular predicted query is processed by a search engine to obtain search results. The set of predicted queries and the search results are sent to the user and displayed on the user interface. The user may choose a different predicted query in the set of predicted queries or continue entering characters, both of which may result in different search results being displayed.